Details

Date Published

Date Built

CPU Clock Rate

CPU Temperature While Idle

28.0° C

CPU Temperature Under Load

48.0° C

GPU Core Clock Rate

1.51GHz

GPU Effective Memory Clock Rate

8.0GHz

GPU Temperature While Idle

30.0° C

GPU Temperature Under Load

54.0° C

Description

The Upside Down is so named for the weird way it ended up having to be put together. Simply put, half of the components feel or are upside down (CPU cooler, RGB controller, PSU), some because of the case but mostly because of incompatibility issues with the motherboard and CPU cooler. However, I absolutely like that this expandable little beastie named itself.

I will be using this PC for a long time and while I lean towards small factor PC’s (see my first build) I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of room for adding things in and adjusting, this case isn’t tiny but it’s also not a giant monster that looms over my desk. I also wanted to be able to use the excess parts after adjusting this build, hence the Mini ITX mobo will be used to upgrade my partner’s BitFenix Prodigy build when I move to an ATX mobo. The case will allow me to add in RGB strips, an unmentionable number of fans (no, seriously, it comes with an inbuilt controllable fan hub that can take more fans than I can fit in), fully custom CPU and GPU cooled water loop and I might squeeze in an SLI if I want to be super fancy.

This is my second personal build, but between Togetic (https://pcpartpicker.com/b/7qf8TW) and this I’ve put together a bunch of PC's for friends and one for my husband, so I think I’ve got the hang of it now and so I'll be using this PC to experiment and learn new tricks (OC, Custom Water loops, etc etc) which is why the case has a lot of expandability potential. However, it will also be my main gaming rig, my way of staying in touch with family back home in Scotland and it will do some small video editing projects as well.

THINGS I WISH I’D DONE DIFFERENTLY

RGB I wish I’d bought a CPU cooler that connected to AuraSync, I will be trading out the NZXT cooler for a Deepcool CAPTAIN 240EX RGB in the future. I also wish that Anidees fans were compatible with AuraSync, those will be switched out too. I’m a sucker for the GTX Founder Editions looks, but I’d suggest for a fully RGB build to go with the Asus STRIX RGB, I just had to have the Founders. Side note: Cheapest place I’ve found to buy the Founders editions are direct from Nvidia, super-fast free shipping too.

PSU I should have bought a fully modular, but at the time of purchase the Corsair CSM was 59 bucks, a bargain. So I plan on switching it out with my husbands Cooler Master 750W Fully modular PSU in a few weeks.

THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN BEFORE BUILDING

CPU COOLER The NZXT technically fits, but with this motherboard and ram it absolutely had to be installed upside down, the piping on the right side of the water block make it 100% impossible to fit the ram. I tried wiggling, pushing, shoving (gently) and there just isn’t enough clearance to install two sticks of ram next to the pipes. This was irritating in two ways: now the NZXT logo is upside down, and all the wires are slightly more awkward to route because they point in the opposite direction of all the ports I needed to connect them to. Also, they aim right at the GPU. With some careful cable management it works though, and if I’m honest the upside down way makes it so the tubing linked to the radiator sit out of the way of the RGB ram. Looks better so long as you don’t mind the upside down logo (I turned it off, just kept the rings on).

CASE FANS So the Anidees AI Crystal Cube boasts some nice features, the stuff that really sticks out is the duel compartment, rubber grommets and cut outs in general that make cable management super easy. They also include a great feature, you can control the speed of the case fans via a switch on the side, options are simple but off, low and high it’s great! However it doesn’t work with the RGB or Prismatic fans because they are attached to the RGB control hub, which means those fans are always running full blast. Not too noisy, but irritating that I can’t control the speed of the fans. The RGB control can be accessed on the hub inside the case, or at the back via GPU bracket that is preinstalled… it’s upside down though, snapped a picture to show what I mean.

PSU The PSU fan can point two ways, it can vent through the cutout below the GPU or out against the tempered glass side. Now, I didn’t like the idea of it heating up the GPU so I installed it upside down, the wires for the main 24 pin mobo power cord are horrible looking though, they are bare multicolored that ruin the look of this build a bit, custom power cables coming soon! It’s also worth mentioning that the cutout and PSU has a very slight gap that allowed me to route some wired behind it, I directed the case USB 2.0 connector and the back fan wire through there which made everything look super clean as far as cable management went.

MONITOR Great looking monitor, nothing fancy but it has a nice feature in that the back stand is also a headphone stand, which is nice. Made of metal mostly, plastic bezel around the screen but overall sturdy construction. Downside is it the screen wiggles a bit, I have no idea why either everything feels like it should not wiggle, but it does. Got it on sale for $230, amazing for the price.

Part Reviews

CPU

Fantastic CPU, hard to get your hands on but once it arrives the wait is worth it. Hits 4.7 with very little OC, idles at 20C for me, max temp of 72C at 4.7ghz but usually sits around 48C while gaming/editing etc. If you're torn between Kaby Lake and this, buy this lil beastie you won't regret it.

CPU Cooler

Looks good, RGB is cool to look at, build quality is great and keeps my CPU super cool even while messing around with OC. Wish the tubing was a little more flexible, otherwise it's a great cooler.

CONS: The tubing on the right side of the water block takes up a huge amount of room. Some motherboards (Asus ROG strix Z370-I) don't have the clearance between the ram and CPU for this to be mounted. It only fits if installed upside down. Annoying, but not the end of the world.

Motherboard

BIOS is easy to navigate, lots of options, installing Windows was easy-peasy. It has a whacky 3.1 gen 2 connector that is useless to me right now but will probably have support in the future. Wish it had a second 2.0 header though, other than that it looks good, works great and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a coffee lake MINI ITX board.
CONS: NZXT Kraken X52 and the rest of the series have to be installed upside down or they completely block the ram. Very small clearance between the ram and the CPU.

Storage

So far, this little thing has been spectacular. It's fast, the sticker peels right off without leaving any residue, it's got a matte finish and looks fantastic in my build. The negatives about it are simple, the SATA cable connection doesn't securely click into place and feels a little loose, I've tried different cables and they're all the same. However, all in all it's great! Super fast.

Video Card

Not gonna lie, bought this simply because of the design. Coulda got a better GPU for cheaper, but this just looks so good. The build quality and material used feels and looks amazing, it's metal and plastic but the metal parts make it feel so premium. Performance wise, yeah it gets a little hot (81C when I pushed it super hard) but with a fan mounted directly below it to suck out the heat and very well cooled case it demolishes Overwatch at Ultra, 80FPS on a 144GHZ 1080P monitor with a temp stable at 54C. Did I mention it looks real good? Ye, cause it does.

Case

It's not quite a cube, it's taller than it is wide but if you don't look too hard it passes. Overall I love this case, it has great cable management, plenty of options for mounting both closed loop cpu coolers (240 is what I put in it) and plenty of options to play with custom water cooling. It comes with a fan hub which is controlled by a switch on the side, and RGB controlled fans which run pretty quiet but not silent. However the RGB fans can't be controlled by the speed hub, they are controlled by the RGB panel at the back... which doesn't allow you to control the speed. So they run full blast. The dust filters aren't great, the holes are kinda big and let in dust but do a decent job at keeping out cat hair. All in all, it looks great, keeps everything cool (it can have a stupid amount of fans) and makes cable management super simple. I love it, despite its flaws.

Power Supply

Nice power supply, does the job and I've had no issues so far. It's quiet, cheap and cheerful. However, the 24pin mobo connection is a multicoloured unsleeved catastrophe. Looks horrible, but if you're not gonna have a window to see into your PC this is a fantastic option. Got it for $59 on sale, can't really ask for more of a bargain.

Monitor

Got it for 230, worth every penny. Looks amazing, excellent build quality but the screen wiggles sometimes when my desk moves. Have tightened every point, but it still wiggles. Irritating as heck so I knocked a star off, but I'd still recommend it because well, it looks so sleek and there's a bonus feature in the stand. It doubles as a headset stand. Nice!

+1 on the build. Quiet, cheap, and cheerful. That's a good description...

I read that you like to experiment? Consider burning a live DVD of Ubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, or Mint Operating Systems'. Mint is the most user friendly because it already has the most drivers for you. You can Google for the FREE DOWNLOAD web pages.

If you've never used a live Distro, you restart your computer with the DVD you've downloaded. It will then boot to the new Operating System without installing it to your HDD unless you tell it too. It runs only within system memory. You can write to it, upload programs to it, and all without it writing to your HDD.

It will not conflict with Windows. You just have to tell your computer in the BIOS settings to 1st Boot from the DVD drive or USB stick you have it downloaded to. It can do everything that Windows does and not be as heavy on your system.

Good Description, good Parts List, and good Photo's.

Thanks for sharing your build with us and Godspeed in your experiments ;O)

I'll look into it, I thought about experimenting with software for awhile now but I think I'll build a small test/cheaper rig before trying that out, knowing me I'd make a huge mistake and demolish my PC somehow!